Internet Explorer lost a bit more of its edge, falling below 50 percent of the browser market in September, according to web statistics firm StatCounter. Meanwhile, Firefox rose to 31.5 percent, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome more than tripled its share from a year ago to take 11.54 percent of the market, the firm said in an announcement.   

The exact figures are in dispute, however, with another statistics company, Net Applications, attributing 59.7 percent of the market to IE in September, NetworkWorld's Bob Brown points out. But either way, it's impossible to argue that IE's share isn't dropping significantly. In 2002, IE enjoyed more than 90 percent of the browser market, StatCounter notes.

The European Union's lawsuit against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which was settled last year, may be partly responsible for the declining market share, Brown reports. In Europe, Microsoft is required to give Windows users a menu of different browsers.  

There is serious competition driving advances in features and speed among browsers these days as well. Open source programs deserve much of the credit for cutting down IE's dominance, writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Computerworld. "First, Firefox and more recently Google with its Chrome web browser have managed to pry Microsoft's fingers from around the users' throat. They did it the old-fashioned way. They delivered better products," he writes. "The age of the Internet Explorer monopoly is finally over."

For more:
- see StatCounter's announcement
- see Bob Brown's article at NetworkWorld
- see Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols' post at Computerworld

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